The show The Federal Theatre and Greenbelt used 11 songs and dramatic vignettes, intertwined with wry humor, grim reality and a warm sense of humanity, to show average people working to survive during the extraordinary obstacles brought on by the Great Depression. The joint production of the Greenbelt Museum and Recreation Department was performed on June 23 and 24 at the Community Center. All the content was derived from work commissioned by the Federal Theatre Project (FTP) of the WPA (Works Progress Administration) in the late 1930s in support of what FTP national director Hallie Flanagan referred to as this country’s “national wealth” of the arts and culture.
The program was developed through director Chris Cherry’s research into Greenbelt’s dramatic beginnings, inspired by the city’s 80th year milestone. Delving into the city’s first acting troupe, the Greenbelt Players, Cherry learned that the first play performed by the Players at the Community Center in 1938 was What Are You Going to Be? by Betty Smith. Cherry was able to track down the original script and immediately recognized that the play was an early sketch for Smith’s novel (and later a classic movie) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Cherry noted that the play does not appear in any Smith bibliography. The play formed the centerpiece of the production.
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